Lake Tunaicha is the second largest lake on Sakhalin and a real monument of nature. Located in the Korsakov district of the Sakhalin region. The lake has clear, clean water, and unique vegetation around it. The lake flows parallel to the coastline of Mordvinov Bay. Lake Tunaicha is brackish. It flows into the Komissarovka River.

In winter, Lake Tunaicha is a real paradise for fishing enthusiasts. 29 species of fish live in Lake Tunaicha! Salmon and other species of fish are found here. In this lake, you can catch the red fish loved by many: chum salmon and pink salmon.

In summer, you can pick berries on the lake, admire a variety of plants and enjoy the cleanest air, as well as take beautiful landscape photographs.

Coordinates: 46.76944400,143.22500000

Lake Nevskoe

Lake Nevskoe is the largest lagoon-type lake in Sakhalin. The water in the lake is salty. It is stretched for 40 kilometers, and its depth is up to one and a half kilometers. Three large rivers flow into Lake Nevsky: Rukutama, Olenya and Angurovka. The lake got its name from one of the ships under the leadership of I.F. Krusenstern. Despite its size, the lake is shallow. Its maximum depth is about 2 meters.

The main treasure of the lake is the abundance of birds and rare animals. In spring and autumn, more than 40 species of birds numbering several thousand arrive here! You can also watch ducks, waders and gulls on Lake Nevsky. In addition, otter and muskrat live on the lake. In total, more than 32 species of rare animals live on the lake. The authorities of Sakhalin are planning to raise Lake Nevskoe to the status of a reserve.

Coordinates: 49.38326700,143.40844600

Lake Koltsevoe

Lake Koltsevoe is not just a beautiful, but a unique place on Earth. Due to its ring shape, it got its name. This is the only lake of this shape in the world, while surrounding a volcano. The world's largest volcano Krenitsyn attracts the attention of hundreds of tourists to the lake. However, due to its location on the uninhabited island of Onekotan, peace and quiet reign here.

Lake Koltsevoe is a great place to be alone with nature and take great pictures without a crowd of travelers. Although the lake is not deep, since its depth is just over one meter, they usually do not swim here, but admire the scenery, ascending a mighty volcano.

Coordinates: 49.34928300,154.74272100

Lake Tauro

Tauro is a lagoon lake on Sakhalin Island, in the Uglegorsk municipal district of the Sakhalin Region. On the shore of this lake is the city of Shakhtyorsk, where about 8,000 people live.

Near the lake there is a narrow-gauge railway of the Mining Loading and Transportation Department. The area of ​​the lake is only about 3 kilometers.

Lake Tauro offers beautiful mountain views for exemplary landscape photography. The distance from Lake Tauro to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is about 250 kilometers.

Coordinates: 49.17638900,142.08416700

Lake Changeable

Lake Changeable is located in the Korsakov district in the south of Sakhalin Island. Its total area is 8.2 square kilometers. The lake is quite deep and salty. It flows into the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.

Lake Changeable is famous for its healing properties due to sea sulfide mud, which helps to get rid of skin and gynecological diseases. A magnificent pine forest adjoins the lake.

The water in the lake is sea, salty. Locals and tourists love fishing here. Navaja, catfish, smelt and other valuable fish are found in the lake. If you have diving equipment, you have every chance to catch a "sea spider" - a large Sakhalin crab. You can also buy this unique crab from local experienced fishermen.

Coordinates: 46.87138900,143.11666700

Lake Protochnoye

Lake Protochnoe is a beautiful lagoon lake on Sakhalin. The lake is located in the Uglegorsk municipal district of Sakhalin Island. Right on the shore of the lake is the small town of Shakhtyorsk, where about 8 thousand people live. There is a railway nearby.

Lake Protochnoe is small, its area is 3.1 kilometers. The Dno River flows through Lake Protochnoye. It should be noted that the Flowing Lake is very clean. Many fishing enthusiasts gather here in winter and summer.

Coordinates: 49.16632800,142.07345200

Small Chibisan Lake

Small Chibisanskoye is a marvelous lake on Sakhalin Island. It is located in the very lake place of Sakhalin - in the Korsakov urban district. Lake Small Chibisanskoe communicates with Big Chibisanskoe Lake.

The length of this lake is 2.5 kilometers and the average width is 800 meters. The water in the lake is fresh. The lake is interesting because it serves as a nesting place for rare birds listed in the Red Book during the period of seasonal migrations.

The warmest period for traveling to the lake is August. Autumn here is relatively warm, but there are often rains and fogs, as well as typhoons.

Coordinates: 46.61694400,143.12888900

Small Vavai Lake

Small Vavaiskoe is a beautiful lagoon lake on Sakhalin Island. The lake is located in the Korsakov city district of the Sakhalin region. The lake is one of the most picturesque lakes of Sakhalin.

Traveling along the Small Vavaisky Lake can be made by motor boat. The lake is famous for its picturesque landscapes, the purest transparent water and bright vegetation. You can observe an excellent view of the Small Vavayskoye Lake from the main camp on the Swan Nose cape. From here you can take the best photos of the lake and coastal nature.

Coordinates: 46.60666700,143.17916700

Big Vavai Lake

Lake Bolshoe Vavaiskoe is located in the Sakhalin region, in the Korsakov urban district, on Sakhalin Island. Connected to the Small Vavai Lake and Lake Busse. It is flowing, the Arakul River flows out of it, nine rivers flow into it. It is a lagoon lake. The area of ​​the Great Vavai Lake is 44.1 square kilometers, the average depth is 4.2 meters, the largest is 8.4 meters.

Bays are located in the northwestern and southwestern parts of the lake. The lake is inhabited by such fish as crucian carp, rudd, carp, taimen and others. In the vicinity of the lake there are lizards, frogs, foxes, swans, ducks, geese, eagles.

Coordinates: 46.59668300,143.25909500

Lake Boiling

Boiling Lake is located on the island of Kunashir, in the east of the Golovnin volcano caldera. The area of ​​the lake is 0.7 square kilometers, the depth is 23 meters, the diameter is 230 meters, and the height is 130 meters above sea level.

The lake is located on the territory of the explosion crater. A sulfur deposit formed at its bottom. The name "boiling" lake was due to the fact that its water is heated by volcanic gases. Sometimes there are bursts of boiling water, and jets of sulphurous and hydrogen sulfide gases begin to beat from the ground, along with hot streams of water.

The average water temperature here is +34-36 degrees, but despite this, on the northern shore there are boiling mud pots, the temperature of which reaches +80-100 degrees. Sulfur combines with metals, so sulfuric foam floats on the surface of the water. On the shore lies yellow-black sand.

In the 20th century, Boiling Lake was a source of sulfur. You can’t swim in it, because the concentration of salts of heavy metals and arsenic in the lake is too high. In the caldera with Boiling Lake there is Lake Hot, which is connected with it by an artificial channel, which was built by the Japanese.

Coordinates: 43.84305600,145.50555600

Lake Busse

Busse is a lake (lagoon) in the Korsakov district of the Sakhalin region. The lagoon was discovered in 1797. The lagoon got its name thanks to Major N.V. Busse, a member of the Amur expedition of 1849-1855. The area of ​​the lake is 39.4 square kilometers, length - 9 kilometers, width - 7 kilometers, depth reaches 4.5 meters. Streams and rivers flow into the lake, including the Shishkevich and Arakul rivers. The lake communicates with lakes Chibisansky, Small and Big Vavaysky.

Various sea grasses and algae grow in the lake, among which is the valuable red algae anfeltia, from which agar-agar is extracted. Mollusks are also found here, mainly mussels, giant oysters, seaside scallops, sea cucumbers, and a large herbal shrimps shrimp. The lake is a habitat for many species of fish, including pink salmon, chum salmon, herring, navaga, smelt, crucian carp, taimen and others. Waterfowl nest on the lake.

The Busse Lagoon is a natural monument of regional significance, a rich ecosystem of great commercial and scientific importance.

Coordinates: 46.53448000,143.33278600

Ainu Lake

Ainskoye Lake is located in the Tomarinsky urban district of the Sakhalin region, on Sakhalin Island. It is a lagoon lake. It got its name due to the fact that the indigenous inhabitants of the Kuril Islands and South Sakhalin called themselves Ainu. From the Ainu language "Ainu" is translated as "man" or "man". The area of ​​the lake is 32.4 square kilometers. The river Ainskaya flows through it.

The lake is not deep, the maximum depth is about 3 meters. The lake is famous for its abundance of fish. Here you can catch smelt, taimen, kunja, sima. Fishing on the lake is year-round. The lake has a channel through which you can go to the sea, where cod and various types of flounder are caught.

Coordinates: 48.49998400,142.04865400

The rusty pieces of iron, densely scattered around the island of Matua, were magnificent. Even greater delight was caused by the mysterious structures erected 70 years ago by the cunning Japanese. But, as it turned out, only a minority of the crew of the Kotojärvi shared the author's local lore enthusiasm for the artifacts found. The people demanded virgin nature and pristine purity. Late in the evening, at high tide, the catamaran left the beach and settled for several hours in the thick fog of the strait between the islands of Matua and Toporkov. By 3 am the sky cleared up. And when the signal fire on the top of the mainmast became the fourth star in the handle of the Big Dipper bucket, the catamaran headed for the Krusenstern Strait, which separates the Middle and Northern Islands of the Great Kuril Ridge.

The islands of Raikoke, Shiashkotan, Ekarma, Harimkotan and Onekotan are the peaks of underwater volcanoes. Several at once, like Shiashkotan and Onekotan, or one and only, like Raikoke, Harimkotan and Ekarma. The largest of the five islands, Onekotan, is 43 kilometers long (an area of ​​425 square kilometers). Now all the islands are uninhabited. But it was not always so. The word "kotan" is of Ainu origin and means "settlement". And indeed, on all three "kotans" even now you can find the remains of abandoned Ainu villages. However, like the ruins of the frontier posts of the times of the USSR.

Shiashkotan met with fog and water on duty 2.7 degrees. Because of the fog, they did not go to the shore, standing on the roadstead in Voskhodnaya Bay. On the sandy bottom, the anchors were poorly held, the boat was crawling, and already in the dark they began to rearrange. The result was a sleepless night. The west wind, flowing around the island, blew from everywhere at once, and the catamaran was torn off the anchor several times. At the next rearrangement, they almost landed on Otter Reef.

There is a danger in the Kuril Islands - thickets of sea kale. Those damn Sargassums are so thick that when the boat hits a field of grass, the rudders beat off and the engine stalls. Cabbage stalks are as thick as a hand, and the screw does not cut them. As a result, the boat completely loses control. It remains only to remove the rudders, raise the motor and drift with the wind and current. So, at two o'clock in the morning the anchor took the ground, and managed to sleep, taking turns carrying the anchor watch. Morning met with sunny weather and long-awaited warmth. And just a couple of hundred meters away, the waves crashed against a huge kekur, similar to a petrified frigate with sails caught in the wind.

During the transition from Shiashkotan to Harimkotan for the first time there was excellent visibility. At the same time, six volcanoes could be seen at once. Even Matua, from a distance of 70 miles, was slightly visible through the haze.

Harimkotan has an excellent sandy beach. The island itself is unrealistically beautiful, both from the sea - with its almost perfect volcano cone, and from land - with a fantastic combination of jet-black “towers” ​​made of solidified lava with fields of gray-blue ash, over which hundreds of neat flowerbeds of yellow daylily and blue bells are scattered. It was as if a huge 3D fantasy picture came to life.

To get from the shore to the volcano, you need to overcome three lines of barriers: strawberry, alder dwarf and cedar. The first line is the hardest to pass. There are many strawberries on other islands, but on Harimkotan it is shamelessly abundant. The berry is large, the size of a Central Russian strawberry, and grows so often that there is more red than green. Because of strawberries, it is absolutely impossible to walk around the island, and all good undertakings end with crawling on your knees with a mouth full of berries a couple of meters from the beach.

Nevertheless, we were able to overcome the temptation and climbed the Severgin volcano. It took all day, so we returned already in the dark, guided only by the reverse track of the navigator. But what impressions! Cross streams where there are fewer stones than the backs of spawning humpbacks, look into the gray mouth of a living volcano, stop at the edge of the firmament ten meters from the tangibly dense blanket of clouds, and then, in a few minutes, descend from the dry, sun-drenched ash desert to the cloudy world of wet foothill meadows ... In the northern part of Severgin Bay, in overgrown crooked In the ruins of the outpost, we found a dilapidated wooden pyramid with a home-made tin plate: “To the border guards of the outpost who died while guarding the state border of the USSR on March 29, 1952.” What happened in March 1952, how and why did the defenders of the borders die on Harimkotan, and how many were there? Maybe someone reading these lines now knows?

The ring lake on the island of Onekotan is a rare miracle. Just for the sake of seeing him, it was already worth starting an expedition to the Kuriles. It is located in the southern part of Onekotan at an altitude of 600 meters above sea level. It was formed after the volcanic caldera with a circumference of about 15 kilometers gradually filled with fresh water. In the center of the lake rises a new volcanic structure - a pyramid of regular shape 1324 meters high. The cliff of the caldera and the walls of the pyramid are made of black volcanic rocks with white streaks of snowfields. The water in the lake is azure blue. In clear weather, standing on a cliff, one can see the Pacific Ocean in the east, the Sea of ​​Okhotsk in the west, and the smoking hills of volcanoes from the north and south. There is a legend that the Japanese launched some especially rare and tasty trout into the lake, which was served only at the emperor's table. However, the lake looks so otherworldly and inanimate that it is very difficult to believe in the presence of imperial trout in it.

It was not easy to get to the Ring Road. Previously, an all-terrain road passed near the volcano, connecting the Onekotan outpost on the east coast with the Shestakov outpost behind the western one. Both outposts have long since ceased to exist. Based on satellite images, we managed to find traces of an abandoned road and draw them as a track on the navigator. In fact, the road was preserved only in separate fragments, but most of it was overgrown with alder elfin or was washed away from the hills, forming dips tens of meters deep.

We went to the lake in two groups. Ilya Lukomsky and Denis Ivanov in "alpine style" - light, without food and equipment, there and back in 16 hours. They hobbled barely alive with injuries of varying severity. And completely stunned by what they saw.

Sasha Dzebisashvili, Oleg Makarovsky and I went "in the Himalayan way" - with a tent, sleeping bags, equipment and an intermediate camp, which took two days. We left at 10 am. We climbed to the caldera at 7 pm, adding to the almost unreal beauty of the lake, the delight of the sunset. The dream of Oleg Makarovsky, a 74-year-old member of the expedition, who dreamed of Lake Koltsev for as long as I know him, came true.

It is better not to remember the descent. In the morning, a hard NW blew, it started to rain, the temperature dropped to 5-6 degrees, the scree turned into rides through the mud on five points of support, and even with weighted backpacks ... Thank God, everyone went down alive and relatively healthy.

In the morning, "Kotoyarvi" had to cross the Fourth Kuril Strait and return to the "population". Ahead of us were Paramushir, Shumshu and two hundred kilometers along the Pacific coast of Kamchatka.

A typical two-tier "volcano within a volcano" located in the southern part of Onekotan Island.
Height 1324 m (the highest mark of the island).
The volcano is the largest "volcano within a volcano" in the world.
The volcano is included in the hundred wonders of Russia!

to Onekotan Island

map of Onekotan island, Krenitsina volcano

The volcano is located in Koltsevoe Lake with a diameter of 7 km, surrounded by a rocky wall, 900 m high. The volcano is the most beautiful and spectacular natural wonder of the Far East, which the locals call the "eighth wonder of the world." You can get to the local attractions - Onekotan Island and Krenitsyn volcano - from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky across the Pacific Ocean on a yacht.

The volcano is named after the navigator Pyotr Kuzmich Krenitsyn. Only one historical eruption is known in 1952. Currently, fumarolic and thermal activity is recorded.

Krenitsyn Volcano is an active volcano on Onekotan Island. A typical two-tier "volcano within a volcano".
It is located in the southern part of Onekotan Island. Height 1324 m (the highest mark of the island).
The volcanic cone (with a base diameter of 3.5-4 km) rises in the form of an island inside Lake Koltsevoe (about 7 km in diameter), lying at an altitude of 400 m. The lake is surrounded by somma - the walls of the more ancient Tao-Rusyr caldera (height 540-920 m with a base diameter of 16-17 km).

The caldera is composed of basaltic lavas and andesitic loose material, the volcanic cone is composed of andesites. The slopes are covered with dwarf cedar.
Only one historical eruption is known in 1952. Currently, fumarolic and thermal activity is recorded.
The volcano is the largest volcano in the volcano in the world

ONEKOTAN ISLAND
Onekotan Island in plan has a shape close to a triangle with a base in the south in the form of an arc, curved in the same direction. The length from the south-southwest to the north-northeast is 42.5 km, the width in the south is about 16.7 km, in the north 11 km, the area is about 315 km2.

In the middle group, the pointed peak of Enzio (Dome-shaped, Dom) rises to 707 m among domed mountains and short ridges separated by longitudinal lowlands and closed basins.
In the northwest of the island, the smoking Peak Nemo (1019 m) is also surrounded by peaks in a chaotic heap that extends to the northeast end of the island.

In view of the fact that the highest peaks are located closer to the western coast of the island, the latter is steep, in some places steep and indented less than the eastern one, although even there low-lying coastal areas are rare and are accompanied by rocks and pitfalls. From the northwestern Cape Kimpei (Kimberley), a rocky reef is pushed far into the sea; the northeastern cape of Kiito (Little John) ends with the Tsurigane (Clear Weather Stone) 88 m high; at the southern end, the coast is covered by high steep cliffs with underwater reefs at a depth of 20 m, giving the water a dark color at low tide.

The slopes of the mountains are mostly steep, devoid of loose sediments and only in places covered in hollows by stone streams. Climbing the peaks is difficult even for a pedestrian. The depressions are filled with coarse clastic sediments and a thin cartilaginous soil layer. Earthworks are possible at shallow depths.
There are few rivers on the island. They are shallow and not difficult to ford, although they are stormy in the upper reaches, especially during rains. The river valleys in depressions are wide and filled with coarse alluvium. There are two vast lakes on the island: at the foot of the Enzio Peak - about 4 km long and 2 km wide, and at the foot of the Blakist Mountain - with a circumference of about 15 km.

The vegetation of the island is richer than on the northern islands. In the valleys there is a dense cover of meadow herbs, among which there is a high "bear root", sweet hogweed, kakalia spear-leaved, Kamchatka scallop, and nettle. Tall umbrella and nettles in places form impenetrable thickets. On flat lowlands and around lakes there are grass and moss bogs. On the gentle slopes of the hills, forb meadows alternate with heaths. A higher position on the slopes is occupied by thickets of shrubby alder, to the tops of the mountains they are replaced by grassy and lichen-moss cover on stony placers. Many plants produce edible rhizomes. Among the berries are shiksha, blueberries, cloudberries. There is no timber on the island.
Of the land mammals, there are only foxes and small rodents. Seals are common in the sea; sea ​​lions are found in areas rich in seaweed; rookeries of a sea animal are found only on the Puritan rock. There are bird nests on the Tsurigane rock. During the period of Japanese presence in Nemo Bay, there was a fox nursery.

The remains of an old abandoned village are on the eastern shore, in Kuroishi Bay. There is a road on the island that crosses it from the Tenryuwan road to Kuroishi Bay.

Cape Kimberley, Onekotan Island

CAPTAIN KRENITSIN
Pyotr Kuzmich Krenitsyn (1728 - July 4, 1770) - captain of the 1st rank, explorer of Kamchatka and the Aleutian Islands.
Born in 1728. In 1742 he entered the Naval Cadet Corps, the following year he was promoted to midshipman, and in 1748 to midshipman.
In 1760, commanding the bombardment ship Jupiter, he participated in the Kolberg expedition and earned the most flattering certification from Rear Admiral S. I. Mordvinov.
When it came to the attention of Empress Catherine II that Russian industrialists had discovered several islands in the Bering Sea, the Empress ordered the Admiralty Board to send “immediately, according to her reasoning, as many officers and navigators as necessary, entrusting the command over them to a senior, whose knowledge in marine science and diligence to it was known.” The choice fell on Lieutenant Commander Krenitsyn, who at the same time received from Empress Catherine the rank of captain of the 2nd rank and a gold watch; he was appointed in 1764 head of a "secret" expedition equipped to explore the newly discovered islands. M. D. Levashov was appointed his assistant, who was given independence to a large extent. The navigators of the expedition were M. F. Krasheninnikov and Ya. I. Shabanov.

By dry route, he went to Okhotsk, where he arrived at the end of 1765, and on October 10, 1766, commanding the brigantine "St. Catherine ”with a detachment of four small ships, set off from Okhotsk; but his ships were separated by a strong storm and wrecked on October 25 off the coast of Kamchatka, near Bolsheretsk: standing on one remaining anchor on two poles, Krenitsyn ferried the team ashore and himself was the last to leave the ship.
In 1767, on the boat “St. Gabriel ”Krenitsyn, rounding Cape Lopatka, moved from Bolsheretsk to Nizhnekamchatsk; in 1768, commanding the galliot "St. Catherine", left the Kamchatka River in the Bering Sea and reached the island of Unalashka. Having waited there for M. D. Levashov, who was engaged in the inventory of the Commander Islands, Krenitsyn moved to Unimak Island, where he set up his intermediate base. Then Krenitsyn and Levashov examined the northern coast of the Alaska Peninsula, which they took for an island.

At the end of 1768, Krenitsyn returned to Unimak Island and spent the winter there; during the winter, most of the detachment died from scurvy there. In the summer of 1769, Krenitsyn examined a group of small islands between Unimak and Unalaska, later called the Krenitsyn Islands.
In 1769 he was promoted to captain of the 1st rank and, commanding the same galliot and commanding the expedition, moved to Kamchatka. Due to the poor and hasty construction of the ships, the lack of provisions and the hostile attitude of the natives, this expedition ended after four years without any visible result; during this expedition, Krenitsyn drowned on July 4, 1770 in the Kamchatka River, after which the expedition ships returned to Okhotsk under the command of Captain-Lieutenant M. D. Levashov, who, having taken the people, went to St. Petersburg. Based on the materials collected by Krenitsyn and Levashov, the first map of the Aleutian Islands was compiled.
From the discoveries of Krenitsyn, a very convenient harbor on the island of Unalaska is known, called the harbor of St. Paul (Dutch Harbor). In addition to the group of islands in the Aleutian archipelago, Krenitsyn is named after: the strait between the Onekotan and Kharimkotan islands, the volcano on the Onekotan island, the cape on the Kharimkotan island and the cape in the Bristol Bay of the Bering Sea.

Krenitsina volcano, view from space, volcano within a volcano

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SOURCE OF INFORMATION AND PHOTO:
Team Nomads
http://100chudes.rf/index.php?id=63
Global Volcanism Program
Afisha-Mir. No. 035 - Active Volcanoes
Wikipedia site
Active volcanoes of the Kuril Islands. Short description
Geography of the Kuril Islands
Lurie V. M. Marine Biographical Dictionary. XVIII century. SPb., 2005
Magidovich IP, Magidovich IV Essays on the history of geographical discoveries. T. III. Geographical discoveries and studies of modern times (mid-17th-18th centuries). M., 1984
Russian biographical dictionary: In 25 volumes / under the supervision of A. A. Polovtsov. 1896-1918.
http://www.kurilstour.ru/islands.shtml?onekotan
http://barrier.marshruty.ru/

Ring (lake, Onekotan) Ring (lake, Onekotan)

Ring
 /   / 49.33472; 154.73444(G) (I)Coordinates : 49°20′05″ s. sh. 154°44′04″ E d. /  49.33472° N sh. 154.73444° E d. / 49.33472; 154.73444(G) (I)
A country	Russia, Russia
Region	Sakhalin region
Square	26 km²
Greatest depth	369 m
catchment area	45 km²

K: Water bodies in alphabetical order

The area of ​​the lake is 26 km². The catchment area is 45.2 km².

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An excerpt characterizing the Ring (lake, Onekotan)

Drum yes yes ladies, ladies, ladies, the drums crackled. And Pierre realized that a mysterious force had already completely taken possession of these people and that now it was useless to say anything else.
The captured officers were separated from the soldiers and ordered to go ahead. There were thirty officers, including Pierre, and three hundred soldiers.
The captured officers released from other booths were all strangers, were much better dressed than Pierre, and looked at him, in his shoes, with incredulity and aloofness. Not far from Pierre walked, apparently enjoying the general respect of his fellow prisoners, a fat major in a Kazan dressing gown, belted with a towel, with a plump, yellow, angry face. He held one hand with a pouch in his bosom, the other leaned on a chibouk. The major, puffing and puffing, grumbled and got angry at everyone because it seemed to him that he was being pushed and that everyone was in a hurry when there was nowhere to hurry, everyone was surprised at something when there was nothing surprising in anything. The other, a small, thin officer, was talking to everyone, making assumptions about where they were being led now and how far they would have time to go that day. An official, in welled boots and a commissariat uniform, ran in from different directions and looked out for the burned-out Moscow, loudly reporting his observations about what had burned down and what this or that visible part of Moscow was like. The third officer, of Polish origin by accent, argued with the commissariat official, proving to him that he was mistaken in determining the quarters of Moscow.